As a door opening/closing control device that is mounted in a vehicle, for example, there are a power back door (also referred to as “power tail gate”) control device, and a power slide door control device. In these door opening/closing control devices, as an actuator that opens or closes a door such as a back door or a slide door, a motor is used, for example. Further, a driver's seat and the back of a vehicle, a remote controller and the like are each provided with an operation switch that is operated for instructing opening/closing or stopping of the door.
Then, in accordance with an opening/closing operation of the operation switch, the door opening/closing control device rotates the motor and activates a door opening/closing mechanism, to automatically open or close the door (so-called auto-opening/closing function). Further, when the operation of opening or closing the door is manually performed, operation assisting force is applied by the motor so that an operator can perform the operation of opening or closing the door by small force (so-called power assisting function).
In a door opening/closing control device of Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 2001-132326, in order to stop a back door at an arbitrary intermediate position between a fully closed position and a fully opened position, an operation content is judged based on the number of operation times of an operation switch, to selectively activate a driving measure and a braking measure for the back door. For example, by a first operation of the operation switch, the driving measure is activated to open or close the back door. By a second operation of the operation switch, the driving measure is stopped and the braking measure is activated, to stop the back door.
In a door opening/closing control device of Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 2002-242533, an opening/closing operation force detector is provided at a door handle for manually operating a slide door. When opening/closing operation force is applied to the door handle during an automatic operation of opening or closing the slide door by driving of the motor, a duty ratio of the motor is increased in accordance with an output signal of the opening/closing operation force detector preferentially over the automatic opening/closing operation, to increase an opening/closing speed of the slide door.
In a door opening/closing control device of Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 2006-299603, in order to restrain a back door from moving to a position against an intention, during an automatic operation of opening the back door by driving of the motor, an instruction of reversal in a moving direction by an operation of an operation switch is monitored. In a case where the reversal of the moving direction is instructed by the operation of the operation switch before the opening of the back door is completed, the moving direction of the back door is reversed (automatic closing operation) when the current opening angle of the back door is not smaller than a predetermined value, and the automatic operation of opening the back door is continued when the current opening angle is not larger than the predetermined value.
In the case of the operation switch being operated in a power assisting state, when the driving of the actuator is controlled in accordance with that operation, the door might move in a direction against the intention of the operator who is manually operating the door, thus causing a danger of nipping or the like. Further, the door might automatically move in the same direction as a direction of the manual operation of the door, thus bringing a feeling of strangeness to the operator who is performing the manual operation.